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The last two shows I've been to, Wild Nothing and Bloc Party this week, I met lone-gig goers. Both of them good looking girls. One I slept with, the other one I nearly did but still had a great time with.

I think this is like my new past time. I don't want to see them again because it'll ruin a fun night. Why ruin one-off memories with a possibly fumbly, awkward second meeting? But at the same time, you kind of want to thank them for giving you a good night out.

Basically, have you met a good mate at a gig? Or romance? Is there someone you never ended up seeing again at a gig? Has anything momentous in a relationship happened at a show? Or have you just had plenty of good times with temporary best mates?

me and the LADS were out catchin a bit of Mummers & Co at V when we scoped a couple a niners avin a bit of a wiggle and a stomp. Needless to say they werent thinkin about the music that night if you know what i mean!!!1

We drank pernod and blacks, talked about John Barry, Ford Cortinas (she preferred the Mark 3), what was best: gel or Brylcream? I preferred the Brylcream.
She even agreed On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the best Bond film, if you accept it as a whole and not just get hung up about George Lazenby.
She smoked Silkcuts, she didn't mind Marlboros, but we both had a fondness for Old Port cigars
We moved down to the club. Upstairs for a couple of onion bhajis went down to the quiet bar, near the dance floors.
We decided to leave early, you wouldn't want to be there in the end, when the lights came on. You'd never sit down in here again. In a depressing shuffle we pushed to the door, now it was good to get up and out, while it was still a black hole, warm, and smokey, full of possibilities...

She lived by the river, the other side of town, queue for taxis was hell as usual, next to the late night chippy, the worst chips you could buy, but at this time of night, full. Outside fights and throwing up. We jumped in the taxi, nothing mattered but us.
Back at hers, a bedsit in a house similar to mine, she'd done something, painted three walls, put up some old fifties star wall paper, a big Bowie poster and some nice curtains, it would be easy for me to change my woodchip magnolia bedsit standard. Afterall, it was my job. She had a few lamps here and there were some candles. She made us proper hot chocolate, not the instant shit you get from the machine. She had Fox'sbiscuits and a small bottle of Cointreau, too. The end of a perfect day. The taste of chocolate, cigarette, and orange liqueur made it even seem better. I undid her tartan miniskirt, pulled off her black wool tights, my lips moved up her legs... What the fuck? I had a large hard dick poking me in the eye. "Shit! you're a chap!" I felt like jumping through the window, screaming, I couldn't move...
She... he...still looked the same... I had a pain in my head, I wanted to do something, say something...
He was holding me, sobbing... "you must have known, how could you not tell?" And "I love you, I can be your woman..." His eyes were still beautiful, deep brown, his lips still chocolatey and orangey.
"Shit!" I said, "I was never a breast man, anyway..."

and have never met a girl. They always seem to be sausage fests anyway. At Metronomy last year this girl kept holding my hand and putting her arm around me; I just found it annoying as I wanted to jump around a bit and be fully focused on the music.

I'd be open to the idea however. How does one do this? It's kind of difficult talking when the bands are playing (and rude) so I guess it's mostly done through body language?

I decided a week prior to buy a ticket. I had to switch shifts around at work, but I went. At that show, there was some drunk asshole babbling to the guy next to me about not having any idea who LCD were, but he got in for free and decided it was a good excuse to get shitfaced. After the guy stumbled away, he turned to me to bitch about the experience. We chatted for awhile, and rightfully lost our minds to the show.

That was two years ago, and he's my best friend, and we do a podcast together now. Out of all of the people that I am friends with and see on a regular basis, only one of them is someone that I did not meet through him. He may actually be responsible for every professional connection that I have in Portland, if indirectly.

That one person? We met because he looked exactly like some other guy I know, and THAT was after Arcade Fire. I am friends with ONE person that I don't know because of music, and that is my wife.

If I only went to shows that other people wanted to be, my resume would be 10x shorter. I like going with people, but a lot of the time, I just like being alone and disappearing into a podcast or something in between sets.

That's a great story. I'd love to make some friends through shared music experiences. Most of my friends are from school (I'm 30) and they're great and all but their interest in music is gradually slipping to zero (hence me going alone to most gigs).

Should probably be a lot more open and sociable when at gigs, except I don't really view them as a social experience if I am going alone. I view them as "me time" and just want to be fully immersed in the music, not being distracted by scoping out possible social interactions. God I sound like a funless bore.

back in about 1991. Really hit it off, was chatting for ages, I went to get a drink and while I was at the bar Gary Clail came on and, as I was already fucking hammered, I forgot all about her and went down the front. It's only as I was on the way home that I remembered and realised what a complete drunken twat I'd been. 20 years on, Gary Clail having faded into obscurity, I feel like an even bigger twat.

And just before Levitation's set at Reading in 1992, I got chatting to a girl and she asked if she could come back to my tent. I weighed it up - sex with someone who hadn't showered for 2 days, and was probably only after a dry place to sleep, versus the mighty Levitation. Levitation won. Don't regret that one.